Chapter 463 Meteor, Consecutive Slashes

To the human fishermen living along the coast, sahuagin were cruel, frenzied, and bloodthirsty monsters.

Yet they possessed their own language and writing system, having built a civilization of their own deep within the ocean.

To some extent, they could even be considered intelligent creatures.

When venturing out to pillage, their habits dictated that they usually operated in small, scattered groups.

A Sahuagin Priest would lead the party, supported by several elite guards and a swarm of ordinary fishmen serving as cannon fodder.

It was simple, but effective.

As Spellcasters, Sahuagin Priests often possessed higher intelligence and better judgment than their peers. They might not understand complex tactics, but with enough experience, they could orchestrate small-scale skirmishes quite decently.

Right now, faced with the human adventurer who had inexplicably intruded upon their ritual, this priest merely issued a brief command, and the subordinate fishmen surged forward with strange croaks to surround her.

It was experienced in dealing with lone human adventurers like this one.

First, it would send its lackeys to test the waters. If the target proved weak, they would simply kill her and be done with it. If the target turned out to be a tough opponent and their numbers couldn't break through her defenses, the priest, staying safely in the rear, would have plenty of time to decide whether to keep fighting or temporarily retreat.

It could even be considered cautious.

Even though the open beach made any movement glaringly obvious, and the ocean was right beside them for a quick escape, the Sahuagin Priest still kept two elite guards by its side for emergencies while ordering the rest forward.

However, reality seemed to prove that it had overthought things.

When the fishmen completely surrounded the red-haired female adventurer in the distance, no unusual movements came from the woods and bushes bordering the beach.

It seemed she truly was alone.

The only slight surprise was that this adventurer appeared much stronger than any it had encountered before.

The scorching air currents that could be felt even from such a distance, along with the sharp crimson silhouettes flashing through the distant air, stirred an unease in the priest's heart. It was already beginning to consider retreating.

Just as the Sahuagin Priest was debating whether to continue the fight or order its fishmen back into the sea to reassess the situation...

A dark shadow suddenly flashed past the corner of its eye.

It subconsciously looked up.

The blazing, blinding sunlight provided the perfect camouflage. It forced the Sahuagin Priest to instinctively narrow its black fish eyes, making it difficult to immediately identify the figure moving swiftly through the sky.

It took two seconds for the priest to realize it was a Short-Tailed Albatross, far larger than normal.

It took another half a second to notice the pitch-black shape dangling beneath the bird.

By then, amid the echoing flaps of wings, the albatross had already arrived directly overhead.

A profound, high-pitched wolf howl suddenly erupted. The Sahuagin Priest's heart tightened as an unprecedented sense of danger welled up within.

It instinctively gripped the conch shell in its hand as magic particles rapidly converged.

Before the spell could even form, accompanied by the wolf howl echoing across the beach, the priest's lifeless, pitch-black eyes glazed over.

[Night Mother's Gaze] quietly took effect, and fear spread.

In that moment, for some unknown reason, it suddenly recalled the hunter shark that had nearly bitten off half its body in its youth. It remembered that massive shadow slowly cruising through the lightless depths, inching closer and closer.

Fortunately, the daze only lasted for a split second.

The next instant, the Sahuagin Priest broke free from the terror, having successfully passed the Perception check.

However, that mere blink of a delay caused it to miss the optimal window for a counterattack.

"Boom—"

Mingled with the drawn-out wolf howl was the shrill shriek of tearing air.

Framed against the azure sky, the Short-Tailed Albatross suddenly felt its burden vanish and soared upward.

A single, pure white feather silently detached from its belly, drifting lazily in the air before beginning to fall.

Suddenly, a violent gust of wind swept past, freezing the feather in place.

A surge of pitch-black energy erupted from below, blowing the naturally falling white feather high back into the sky.

Howl—

The wolf howled.

Pitch-black winds, resembling both light and mist, transformed into swaying manes that scattered wildly backward, faintly outlining the ferocious silhouette of a wolf within. The illusory, ink-black afterimage stretched out incredibly long, leaving a fading dark gray trail in its wake.

Plummeting in a steep dive, this attack lacked the solid form of the black wolf treading on water from before. Dropping suddenly from the sky, Xia Nan had no ground to build momentum and nothing but empty air around him to push off of. After letting go of Hein, he could only rely on [Gravity Control] to actively increase his own gravity, generating as much speed as possible to enhance the power of [Fang Hunt].

This caused the black wolf pouncing from the sky to lose almost all of its complete anatomical structure. It only vaguely formed a Wolf Head where the blade pointed, while the rest of its body morphed entirely into a phantom slipstream trailing behind.

From a distance, it looked just like a pitch-black meteor crashing down at high speed.

The air was filled with the deafening cacophony of sonic booms mingling with the wolf's howl. Even from far away, one could already feel the biting, razor-sharp air currents.

It was hard to imagine what the Sahuagin Priest was thinking as it stared at the "comet" plummeting straight toward its head.

However, it had to be admitted that its mental fortitude was decent. Even if it was purely muscle memory, it did not just freeze in place.

Instead, it subconsciously bent its upper arms, attempting to bring the two conch shells in its hands up to its mouth. The radiant glow of magic could vaguely be seen swirling in its palms.

However, halfway through its motion, an inexplicable, crushing pressure abruptly clamped down on its defenseless wrists.

The Sahuagin Priest felt as if its wrists had been violently shoved downward by some invisible force.

While it didn't cause any real damage, the sudden jolt interrupted its spellcasting in an instant.

"Thrum."

It was the buzz of energy vibrating at high frequencies.

Dividing his attention during the fall to cast [Gravity Control] once more, he interrupted the enemy's spell while simultaneously applying gravity to pin it in place, ensuring the target had absolutely no chance to dodge.

How could Xia Nan waste such an opportunity?

Like an extremely faint ember, a reddish-brown glow suddenly flared at the tip of the descending Wolf Fang. It then burned fiercely, transforming into a streak of reddish-brown flame that merged with the pitch-black slipstream.

—[Gravity Etching]!

"BOOM!!!"

Before the red and black trail dragged across the sky could even dissipate, the comet shaped like a wolf slammed into the ground.

Like an explosion, the expanding shockwave churned up countless grains of sand. The wolf's howl abruptly ceased, leaving only layered echoes reverberating in the air.

At the same time, disappearing along with the howl was the weird "Galu" croak the Sahuagin Priest had instinctively let out in extreme panic.

Striking from above, the falling momentum, the added gravity, the instantaneous burst of power from [Fang Hunt], and the sheer sharpness of the [Ember Fall] straight sword—all of these pushed the physical damage of this single strike to its absolute peak;

Add to that the force field damage of [Gravity Etching], as well as the straight sword's innate mental damage, decapitation damage, and slashing damage.

With all these factors combined, even dangerous monsters renowned for their defense would find it incredibly difficult to withstand such a blow.

Not to mention the Sahuagin Priest before him, which lacked even basic armor or a helmet.

The blade cleaved all the way down from the crown of its head, finally tearing out from between its waist and hips.

Its scales, muscles, and bones were more fragile than the softest tofu.

Xia Nan didn't feel a single trace of resistance.

As his feet planted firmly onto the sandy beach, his [Tidal Stabilization] Feat passively reducing the fall damage, the corpse of the Sahuagin Priest in front of him—split perfectly down the middle—was swept apart by the ensuing shockwave, flying off to the left and right and leaving nothing behind but a mangled puddle of internal organs and minced flesh.

Fluorescent blue blood mixed with shredded meat splattered across the surface of his Plate-Chain Composite Armor.

Xia Nan didn't relax his guard just because his decapitation strike had succeeded.

The very next second, two harpoons gleaming with a cold light thrust straight toward him from the left and right.

Though their willpower and perception were a bit weaker, the two sahuagin stationed beside the priest were elite guards after all. Despite briefly zoning out under the influence of [Night Mother's Gaze], they ultimately passed the fear check and launched their attack the moment Xia Nan landed.

Their attack speed wasn't slow, but under normal circumstances, with an Agility stat exceeding ten points, Xia Nan could have easily reacted and dodged.

However, the current situation was different.

Even with [Tidal Stabilization] constantly halving his fall damage, Xia Nan had used [Gravity Control] to increase his weight during the drop to maximize his attack power. Having executed the kill, the sheer impact of the free fall threw him into a momentary state of stiffness, leaving him unable to move.

Operating almost entirely on instinct, a thought flashed through Xia Nan's mind, and a faint glimmer vanished across the surface of the [Deathline] ring on his right index finger.

—[Deflection Field]!

A translucent, reddish-brown force field shield—composed of the same type of energy—materialized out of thin air, enveloping Xia Nan's body.

Just as the shield formed, the two harpoons thrusting toward his vitals from the left and right slammed violently into the reddish-brown force field energy.

The [Deathline] ring had belonged to the Bugbear he encountered at the very beginning of his transmigration. Enchanted with the "Deflection Field" spell, this piece of equipment had undoubtedly provided him with immense help in getting to where he was today.

But as he became a Class Holder, and his Class Level and overall strength steadily increased, the ring's effectiveness continued to diminish.

Many times, when facing incredibly powerful enemies, the "Deflection Field" couldn't even block an attack for half a second.

On the other hand, in such intense combat, even half a second of breathing room was enough to tip the scales of victory completely to the other side.

Right now, it was no different.

Facing the simultaneous strikes of two elite sahuagin whose Challenge Ratings had likely reached lv2 or even lv3, the "Deflection Field" from the [Deathline] ring only lasted for half a second before shattering completely into reddish-brown motes of light.

Yet, that blink-of-an-eye delay allowed Xia Nan to regain just a sliver of bodily control from his post-landing stiffness, letting him force his legs into a half-step backward.

A total distance of less than a foot.

But it ensured that the sharp harpoons, which were meant to pierce his body through the weak points on the sides of his Plate-Chain Composite Armor, merely left two deep gouges on the thickest, most defensive breastplate over his chest.

"Whoosh!"

The sound of beating wings from the sky above was incredibly clear in that moment.

Though transforming into her Wild Shape granted Hein the ability to fly, the body of a Short-Tailed Albatross also stripped her of most of her spellcasting abilities, making it difficult for her to participate in combat the way she normally would.

However, she wasn't completely useless, forced to just watch helplessly.

Having nervously watched from the sky as Xia Nan plummeted to execute the decapitation tactic, she breathed a sigh of relief at the plan's success. Yet, halfway through his descent, she had already anticipated the danger he was about to face.

She immediately adjusted her posture and dove straight down.

As she glided past, the fierce gales kicked up by her massive wings seemed laced with emerald-green energy.

It dealt no damage.

But as that brilliant emerald magic rained down upon the fishmen guards, seaweed could be seen rapidly sprouting from the gaps in their armor joints.

As the albatross swept low across the ground and beat its wings to climb back up, the aquatic plants had already overgrown the two fishmen's entire bodies at an astonishing pace.

Already in their own post-attack recovery frames, the tangling seaweed restricted their movements even further, making it impossible for them to break free in the short term.

Meanwhile, having just relied on explosive muscle power to force a half-step retreat and dodge the enemy's heavy blow, Xia Nan finally recovered from the high-altitude impact.

Keeping a close eye on the shifting battlefield, he didn't hesitate for a single second.

The gray-black blade of the [Ember Fall] straight sword condensed force field energy that flowed like runes, slightly warping the surrounding air under the influence of gravity.

The muscles in his arm flexed, bulging against his black inner shirt as he charged his power.

—[Gravity Etching] + [Heavy Tide] + [Spinning Slash]!

"Thrum!"

"Thrum!"

"Thrum!"

There was no holding back. In that instant, Xia Nan unleashed almost every ounce of his full strength, save for [Ember Echoes].

In less than two seconds, he forcefully carved out three consecutive slashes.

His exaggerated swing speed caused the reddish-brown sword trails—which subtly warped the surrounding air—to practically link together, forming three overlapping, razor-sharp arcs of light.

The first things to snap were the two harpoons still extended forward in their thrusting posture;

Next came the grotesque wounds torn straight down the center of the fishmen's chests, so deep the outlines of their organs were nearly visible;

Finally, it was their severed necks and diagonally cleaved skulls.

Fluorescent blue blood sprayed out madly like a torrential downpour.

Translucent text flashed before his eyes.

In the air, the pure white feather that had detached from Hein alongside Xia Nan slowly drifted down.

Like a small boat navigating a storm, it wobbled and bobbed.

Caught in the draft of the falling corpses, it spun half a circle sideways before finally landing on the beach littered with minced flesh and blood.